The Innovators Forum held on 28th February 2020 at the 7th Sankalp Africa Summit drew participants from Academia, policymakers, R&D funders, regulators, investors and entrepreneurs under the theme Harnessing the 4th Industrial Revolution (Hardware Innovations) to drive UHC in Africa.
The session hosted by Villgro Kenya focused on building a vibrant community and ecosystem for medical devices and diagnostics innovation and manufacturing in the region.
Fadhili Chacha CEO & founder Enzi Health (an on demand health service) and Stephen Tashobya CEO & Founder Wekebere (a prenatal diagnostic device) shared their innovation journey and how various partners helped move them to the next level to scale.
Participants were then encouraged and facilitated to reflect on their needs/goals, identify partnership opportunities that are immediately actionable and to network and pitch these opportunities.
The general consensus from the forum was that if we are to achieve UHC in Africa, we have to assess the immense potential the 4th Industrial Revolution has to drive it home and embrace partnerships as an avenue to accelerate our progress.